I [blogged about this][1] a while ago. The bullet points from that article: - Read the question (carefully) - Code is king - Answer the question *and* highlight side-issues - It's okay to guess, but be honest - Raise the overall accuracy level - Provide links to related resources - Care about your reader: spelling, grammar and style matter - A time-limited answer may be better than no answer at all - Don't be afraid to delete (or edit heavily) useless answers - Be polite - Don't "answer and run" - Have fun (Obviously the post goes into rather more depth on all of them :) You might also want to read the answers to [this rather similar question][2]. [1]: http://msmvps.com/blogs/jon_skeet/archive/2009/02/17/answering-technical-questions-helpfully.aspx [2]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/527962